1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic game which simulates games involving movement of an object such as shove-a-coin.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Current electronic games generally fall into one of two types. Firstly, there are the fruit machine games, in which the result of the game is determined by chance rotation of reels. These machines are primarily for commercial use. Secondly, there are video games in which a computer display is controlled by the player under the influence of a program in the machine. The use of such games is either commercial or private.
The present invention is primarily envisaged as a development of the fruit machine type of game, but in which the chance element is replaced by control dependant on the skill of the player. However, it could also be applied to a video game. In its broadest concept the present invention envisages a game in which movement of one or more indicia on a display is controlled by the speed or distance of movement of a control such as a push-button.
However, this broad concept is, in fact known, in some video games. Many video games attempt to recreate the movement of a ball about some surface. In the simplest games, the speed of the ball is fixed during the game, but in more complex arrangements the speed of the ball is determined by the conditions of impact with some player-controlled object. Thus, for example, FR No. 2416510 is concerned with a billiards type video game, in which a cue is moved over a screen displaying a table with billiard balls and when the cue is moved to a position in which it apparently impacts with a ball, the ball is moved on the screen, with an initial speed dependant on the instantaneous speed of impact of the cue on the ball. The course of movement of the ball is then determined by the boundaries of the table and by other balls displayed.
Similarly, in U.S. Pat. No. Re. 28,507, which is concerned with a video tennis game, there is again means for ensuring that the speed of movement of the ball is proportional to the impact speed of the racket, the position of which is controlled by the player. DT No. 2417484 is also concerned with the movement of an object representing a ball around the screen of the video game. There is mention of the movement of the ball being controlled in dependance on the spacing of the object from a player-controlled "figure".
The present invention, however, is not concerned with games which simulate the movement of a ball around an area, but is concerned with simulating games in which the object moves relative to a fixed scale, the scale defining locations corresponding to different game results. It is thus the purpose of the player-operated control to cause an indicium representing the object to move to some position corresponding to one of the locations on the scale.
A game of this type, has been disclosed in an article entitled "Marbles" in the magazine ELEKTOR No. 1 of January 1977. This disclosed a game in which the player tried to get the object to the position corresponding to the end of the scale, with movement of the object beyond that point causing the object to be reflected back down the scale. This game therefore simulated one version of "Marbles".
In that game, the distance the object moves is determined by the time the control button is depressed. At first sight this is satisfactory, but in fact this is not the case. If the time corresponding to a "win" is measurable by the player, then it is too easy to win. If, on the other hand, the time is short then other effects also become significant such as the delay caused by the fact that the control must move to activate the game, and that movement will also occupy time.